Transcript

June 8, 2023, 2:02PM

Jason Horn 0:03

I will be recording the session so if people aren't comfortable speaking or putting
their cameras on or or anything like that, don't feel like you need to do that.

Jason Horn started transcription

Marjan Hassanzadeh Sabet Khasmakhi joined the meeting

Jason Horn 0:18

OK.
And we have an unknown participant is joining and that's cool.
No problems with that.
Uh, if the unknown participants name isn't showing up, though, I won't necessarily
know.

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Jason Horn 0:38

If you are joining from an outside email, not a problem, just make sure that when you
include the class, you're getting credit for you.
Also include include your student name, so I'll be able to mix that.
Sometimes those outside participants, the names don't show up properly, so I won't
be able to give them proper credit.
Alright, so as I said, we're gonna be doing a bit of a mixed bag of topics today.
This is what I've kind of roughly identified as some of the more common writing
issues.
So as we go through that, we're going to take a look at some of the most common
writing issues, and we're gonna start today with the run on sentence.

Marjan Hassanzadeh Sabet Khasmakhi 1:15

Starting the.

Jason Horn 1:17

Alright, so the run on sentence is interesting because a lot of people just say run on
sentence, but there's actually two kinds of run on sentences.
So and this is gonna be helpful for the folks in biscom, but also for the folks in
effective writing, you have to have a compound sentence and the run on sentence is
an example of a compound sentence that hasn't been formatted properly, right.

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Marjan Hassanzadeh Sabet Khasmakhi 1:35
OK.

Jason Horn 1:38

So we'll go through that now.

Marjan Hassanzadeh Sabet Khasmakhi 1:39

OK.

Jason Horn 1:39

There's two kinds of run on sentences.
The first kind of run on sentences, the common place and the second kind of run on
sentence is the fused sentence.

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Jason Horn 1:48

Now it's important to note that in order to have a run on sentence, we need two
clauses.
So let's come up with two sentences here.
Our first sentence is Marge Simpson, cooks pork chops.
Our second sentence is Homer likes to eat pork chops.

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Jason Horn 2:06

So now we've got two sentences right and in instances where we have two sentence
like like these back to back.
Now in this case here we got two simple sentences.
They are equally important with each other and there is a direct relationship between
them, right?
So in this context, what we typically are going to do is combine them into a
compound sentence and to make a compound sentence where two equally
important sentences are put together.

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Jason Horn 2:32

What we're going to do.
Marjan Hassanzadeh Sabet Khasmakhi 2:33
Why didn't you?

Jason Horn 2:36

Let's see, there's a.
OK, we've got that sorted.
We're going to remove first the period, so we take that period away, we replace it
with a comma and then we add a coordinating conjunction, right?

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Jason Horn 2:51

So Marge cooks, pork chops comma and Homer, eats them.
Easy peasy.
So how does this become a run on sentence?
Well, that's what happens when we're missing either the comma or the conjunction.

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Jason Horn 3:03

So let's take a look first at the commas place and this is what happens when we're
missing the conjunction.
So let's pull this conjunction away and see what happens.
Now the issues here and this is particularly important for the folks and biscom,
because you have to analyze the impact that it has.

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Jason Horn 3:20

So if you have this comma without the conjunction, the problem is that commas are
used for all kinds of purposes, such as introducing items in a list, or offsetting
interjections.

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Jason Horn 3:30

So without the conjunction, your reader won't be able to interpret how the comma is
supposed to be used.
And even if your reader understands that it's a common place now, they don't know
the relationship between these two items because the conjunction is what shows the
reader how the two sentences relate, right?
So to that end, we need to add the conjunction now on the other side, the fused
sentence that happens whenever we're missing the comma or if we're missing the
comma and the conjunction and the issue here is that if we pull out a way the reader
becomes confused as to where the subject and object are now.
Initially, Homer is the subject of his own sentence.

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Jason Horn 4:12

Homer eats the pork chops, right?
So he's doing that action.
But when we remove the comma, he could be read as part of the object of the
previous cause.
So now instead of reading as Marge cooks pork chops, it now looks like Marge cooks
pork chops and Homer.
And that's not good.
We don't want Marge cooking.
Homer would be good for anybody, right?
So and this is the key thing here, when we're talking about the analysis component
of your self critique paper, because you have to say, here's my issue, I have a few
sentence and this one is a double whammy.
Right.
Because you could either identify the comma splice or the few sentence, or both.
So that could be 2 separate issues, but when you look at the few sentence and you're
doing the analysis, the problem is the reader won't understand where the subject
and object are, or they'll be confused about where the second clause starts. Right?
So we want to sort that out now, part and parcel to that and we're going to hop over
to another another PowerPoint is when we have what's called a complex sentence.
So we just looked at what we call a compound sentence.
Now a complex sentence is when we have two clauses, but they're not equally
important.
Once more important than the other, and in those cases we have a conjunction in the
middle still, but there won't be a comma.
So a common issue is putting a comma before the subordinating conjunction.
Right now I know we're jumping around a little bit here, but bear with me.
So how can we tell the difference between a coordinating and subordinating
conjunction?
As we saw with the last one, there are two equally important things, right.
I drink coffee, comma, but you drink tea, right?
I like basketball comma and you like football, right?
So we're we're doing two things equally important, the subordinate is gonna be less
important.
So how do we tell them apart?
Well, in this context, we can switch the clauses around and then watch where the
conjunction goes.
If it's a compound sentence, the conjunction will stay in the middle, or you'll have to
change it all together, right?
And that means it's a coordinator.
It means you need to have a comma before it, but a lot of people if you flipped the
complex sentence around, the conjunction will follow the clause to the beginning of
the sentence.
That means you shouldn't have a comma and a lot of people will put a comma
before as because if and other instances.
So let's see how this works in practice.
We've got Burger King is royalty comma, but Ronald McDonald is just a clown.
So you got two contrasting ideas.
We got a comma and a button, so if we switch these two around and we say Ronald
McDonald is a clown comma, but Burger King is royalty, that checks out, that's still
works.
The conjunction has stayed in the middle of the sentence.
Now you know it's a coordinator.
You need a comma before it, right?
So all good there.
Now let's take a look at an instance where we have a subordinating conjunction in
the middle.
So we might say in this case the chicken crossed the road because Colonel Sanders
was following him right now.
In this case here, if we switch these two around and we leave the conjunction in the
middle and we say kernel standards was following him because the chicken crossed
the road.

Vijayasarathy Dhatchinamoorthy joined the meeting

Jason Horn 7:28

That's not why Colonel Sanders was following him.
Colonel Sanders was following him for other reasons, and none of them good.
So in this context it would be wrong to put a comma before because and when we
do switch it, you'll see it's going to be rather because Colonel Sanders was following
him.
Comma the chicken crossed the road.
So in this context the the common issues that we see with putting those two
sentences together is 1 the run on sentence as we just looked at where you're
missing the comma or the conjunction.

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Jason Horn 8:01

And that's for the compound sentences and for the complex sentences.
The common issue is putting a comma before the conjunction when we don't need
one.
Right now another issue is the and.
This is good for the effective writing folks too, because you have to have introductory
elements and we want to make sure that are those transitional phrases.
So when we have a transition phrase or introductory element and this is another
common issue, the purpose of an introductory element is to provide context for the
main clause.
Now the rule here, though is all introductory elements are closed out with a comma,
and this is another use for the commas here.
What often happens with introductory elements?
And there's three kinds is people forget the comma.
Now the one kind we have adverbs and these are the transition words that you'll use
for effective writing, right?
The effective writing course, we have prepositional elements, and then we also have
the subordinate conjunctions at the beginning of the sentence.
So let's first take a look at the adverbs.
These are demonstrate how the verb or action in the sentence relates to the sentence
that preceded it.
Right.
And it shows the relationship between the two.
So for example, we might say again, going back to that example, Burger King is
royalty.
However, comma Ronald McDonald is just a clown.
So back to that example, right, we have a two complete sentences.
We're leading into the second one.
We wanna show it's the contrast, however comma.
So whenever we have those transition words at the beginning, therefore however,
additionally, moreover, we always close enough with the comma.
So we got that there and the comma afterwards.
So always make sure when you start a sentence with the comma or start a sense with
an adverb you close with the comma.
This is one of the common writing issues.
People will just drop the adverb in and move on.
Now the reader won't be clear as to where the introductory element ends and the
main clause begins.
We have another example here.
New York Fries has fresh cut fries, therefore comma.
I prefer eating there, right?
And we have are therefore our adverb and that's closed out again with the comma.
So if you're in an effective writing and you use those transitions at the beginning,
make sure we close them out with the comma.
Right now the other issue is the prepositional elements, and this is another really
common issue.
Whenever we start a sentence with a prepositional element like 2 on at so at 10:00
o'clock comma, I'm attending a workshop on Friday comma.
I have to submit my paper that creates the context for the closet follows and again
and links it to the preceding sentence, but it's going to be closed out with a comma.
So here we have in the fall, comma Starbucks has pumpkin spice lattes, so we have
the word in which is our preposition and it's introducing a prepositional element in
the fall.
Right.
And that again is closed out with a comma.
So whenever you have a preposition at the beginning of the sentence, almost always
this is going to be closed out with the comma, and then the main clause comes after.
Here's another one, right we have on Tuesdays, comma KFC used to sell 2 pieces of
chicken and fries for Attunity.
This was a little while ago.
They don't do that anymore.
I don't know why, so let's take a look here.
Hashtag bring back Tony Tuesdays.
I missed that.
Alright, so we have our preposition on, and that's going to introduce our
prepositional element.
So on Tuesdays and again, we close that out with the channel.
So whenever you have a preposition on in, out, above, whatever it might happen to
be at the beginning of a sentence, close that element with the comma.
Without that, the reader will become confused as to where the main clause starts,
right?
And then of course, we have the subordinate clauses which you just touched on
briefly with the.
Complex sentence.
So an introductory clause like the prepositional element creates context.
The conjunction at the beginning shows the reader how that subordinate clause is
attached to is related to the clause that follows, right?
And that clarifies the relationship.
So let's take a look at a couple of examples we have because I like to think outside
the bun comma.
I often order chalupas from Taco Bell, so we have again our subordinating
conjunction at the beginning because and then we have that subordinate element
that's closed out with comma, right?
So and then that shows that I like to think outside the bun and it shows that how it's
related to the main clause that follows.
We separate the clauses we open with the subordinating conjunction, right?
So whenever you have a subordinate conjunction here we have.
When I want something spicy comma, I go to Popeyes Louisiana chicken.
So again, we start with our prepositional element.
We show the reader this preposition or this rather subordinating conjunction gets
closed out with a comma and that means that between that conjunction and the
comma is the subordinate clause and then we see now how that relates to the clause
that follows, right?
So again, with those introductory elements, whether it's the adverbs, the
prepositions, or the subordinate conjunctions, the big issue that we see is the
missing comma at the end, right?
So if you're in the biscom course and you can identify something like this and you're
writing.
Just, you know, missing commas, right?
And you have that introductory element when the reader doesn't see a comma at the
end, they'll they won't be clear where the conjunction starts or where the weather
where the clause starts. Right?
So you have to make sure we clarify that for them.
All right, so those were some of the more complicated ones.
Let's take a look at some of the simpler ones.
So one of the most common ones that we see is qualifiers and I have here very and
other qualifiers I put that very up there because that's the most common one that we
see.
So the question here is, what exactly is a qualifier?
The short answer for this is that qualifiers are words, specifically adverbs or adjectives
that intensify or diminish the meaning of a word, right?
So let's take a look at some examples.
If we want to intensify the meaning of a word, we might add words like very actually
extremely, really, totally.
And if we're diminishing it, trying to soften the meeting, then we might bring up
words like fairly pretty, moderately somewhat or sometimes, right.
So let's take a look at a couple quick examples to see and Tower is very tall and that
intensifies how tall we perceive the CN Tower to be and how alternately we could say
that Justin Bieber is somewhat talented.
And then that will diminish how talented we perceive the Biebs to be.
Right now the question here is, should we be using these in academic writing?
And the short answer for this is no.
We're going to avoid these terms, right?
Obviously, when we're speaking in real time and casual context, we're going to use
these a lot.
But when we're writing academically, there's some issues with this one.
The qualifiers are vague 2 they're often wordy.
Three, when we use them, they make us seem inarticulate, like we can't express
ourselves clearly.
And for they come across as Lacey.

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Jason Horn 15:12

Like we didn't take the time needed to come up with a better word or get more
specific information.
So for example, let's say you're making tea for your friends and they say, is the water
ready yet and you reply by saying that the water is very hot.

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Jason Horn 15:28

So what's the problem here?
Going back to our list and this is again is what you want to keep in mind for the
Biscom 2 class.
The analysis of why this is a problem, so you go, it's vague, right?
What's very hot to you might not be very hot to me.
We're not on the same page here now.
In addition, it's wordy and then academic writing and business writing.
You want to be concise?
We have two words here.
Very hot where we really only need one now.
In addition, we statement articulate like we can't come up with a more specific word
than hot and we haven't taken the time to come up with a better word.
So what's the solution here?
Well, Farhana already has the answer right?
So instead of saying the water is very hot, we simply say that it's boiling and that
eliminates all those problems.
It's 100 degrees Celsius at sea level, right?
Very specific two, it's concise.
We've got one word instead of 2-3.
We now seem articulate because we have a vocabulary that can effectively express
our thoughts, and we've taken the time to get the specific information or come up
with a better word.
So if instead of very hot, we say boiling, what could we say instead of very cold in the
chat box?
What do you think?
That's your answers in the chat box.
Hot is to boiling as cold is too freezing.
Yes.
And instead of really tired, we could say that we are.
What?
What could we say instead of really tired?
And there's more than one right answer for this, so don't feel like you got to get the
exact word.
We got exhausted.
Exhausted.
Yeah, we got few you could say fatigued as well.
Right, somebody said knackered the other day when I was working with them.
I loved that word.
That's absolutely great.
It's a little more casual, but and instead of extremely hungry, what could we say?

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Jason Horn 17:15

Famished.
Starving.
I got starving here.
I love famish, but Famish was a little too long cause the extremely hungry was taking
up too much space.
So yeah, as you can see, there's lots of options for each too.
Now the most common one we get in in the rank support desk here that I see is very
important and if you can't think of another word, don't worry about it.
You just right click.
Very important.
You go over to synonyms and you have a whole list of words you can choose from.
Some of them will be about the same, like significant and important.
Others will be stronger.
We got crucial, critical, vital, essential and again, if the word program comes up with
the list of words that's different than the definition you're using.
Don't worry.
You just click on the torus on the bottom and a sidebar will pop up with all the
different definitions and corresponding options that you have right now.
Of course, you don't have to come up with a word per se to see, and tower is very
tall.
Well, we could instead use the measure.
The CN Tower is 553 meters tall, so that's the issues with the qualifiers and part and
parcel with that is value judgements, right?
This is another issue right?
So and it's very similar to the qualifiers, but if you're, let's say in in Biscom 2, you're
trying to categorize different issues.
You could say oh, I use qualifiers here I use value judgements here and now there are
two separate issues, right?
That before I jump into this, I see that there are a few more people than we had at
the beginning of the session.
I just want to make sure everyone's aware if you're here for effective writing as a
bonus and you haven't mentioned it yet, just put effective writing or EW in the chat
box.
If you've done that already, don't worry, we got it.
If you're here for Biscom 2 and you're in Shelley Ann John's class, just put SAAJ or
Shelley and John.
If you're in Biscom 2 and you're in Ann Mullins, class put Anne Mullen.
Or am we'll make sure that you get credit for that.
Right.
And if there is another class that you're here for, a bonus mark for, drop it in the chat
box.
The name of the course and the instructor will make sure you get credit.
So what is a value judgment?
Well, value judgements are essentially an assessment based on personal standards
and priorities right now.
In that context, question again, should we use them again?
Short answer is no.
We're going to avoid those for academic and professional writing generally, and we
wanna understand again the reasons why we're doing this.
We don't want just say don't do this, especially for your self critique papers.
If you're in the biscom course, you have to explain why it's a issue.
One like the qualifiers, it's vague.
If you say something's good, what makes it good?
Right.
And the other issue is that they are often subjective.
So what you might think is just or dangerous or good bad Bunny.

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Jason Horn 20:01

It's all a matter of personal opinion.
So let's say for example, you come up to me and you say, hey, Jason, I just got
Netflix.
Can you recommend a good movie now you say good, but in this context you're
thinking something funny because you wanna have a laugh.
Now I love romance films, let's say, and I say to you ohh you have got to check out
the notebook.
It is the best.
So what do we got going on here?
Well, you've come up to me and you have asked me for a good movie.
I have suggested the best movie.
It sounds like we're on the same page, right?
But we're not.
Because you want something that's going to make you laugh.
And I've just recommended something that's got way too much kissing involved.
So you will be sorely disappointed.
So what's the resolution here?
When we go to correct this well on your end, instead of asking me if I can
recommend a good movie, you could instead ask me for a funny movie.
Now that is still specific or rather subjective, but it's far more specific.
Right.
On the flip side, instead of telling you that the notebook is the best, I should say that
it is romantic, and then you will have a clear understanding of what to expect from
the film.
So those more concrete phrasings, if you think something's good, it's economical.
It's it's high quality.
It's sufficient now in other context.
Let's take a look at some examples.
My new Honda Civic is better than your Dodge Challenger.
Now, who on Earth would think in the chat box?
By the way, drop which car you would prefer to have?
Who on Earth could possibly say that the Honda Civic is better than the Dodge
Challenger, right?
The challenger is faster.
It's roomier.
It handles better.
It looks nicer, right?
But the Honda Civic is more fuel efficient, so if that's your metric for what good is,
then simply state that that's demonstrably true.
Nobody's gonna debate that, and they're going to be very clear as to what you're
trying to communicate.
Alternately, we might say that the caramel ribbon crunch Frappuccino is the best.
But why is it the best right?
Well, in this case here we might say that it is sweet right now.
Do you folks like sweet coffee?
Let's see a yes or no in the chat box.
Sweet coffee.
Are you in favor of that or opposed?
Yes or no?
Let's see what your answers are.
Yeah, I know from Farhana we got a no from the fear.
Lots of notes we got.
Yes, I like the sweet stuff.
So now each of you, when you have that information, you'll each be able to make a
decision suitable for you based on that concrete information.
Whereas if somebody simply said it's the best, we don't know right now.
Big Macs are awful, really.
They sell millions of them every year.
Obviously people like them.
Why are they awful?
Well, they are high in sodium.
Now we know we're not talking about taste.
We're not talking about cost.
We're talking about health considerations.
So again, when you use those value judgements, try to make sure that you are able
to think of something that's more concrete.
Now, sometimes we might say this is better because and then explain why it's better
and that's fine.
But oftentimes rather than saying ohh this product is better, this product is bad.
We might say this product is more affordable, right?
Or this product is low quality right now in that context, then you're reader will always
be a little clearer as to what you're trying to communicate.
So let's hop over to let's just first two.
Whenever we're looking for these problems, if you're trying to find a problem, say,
you can always just hit, for example, control F and you're in your Word document or
command F if you're on Apple and type in a word like very, you hit very and you see
hey, where does very show up?
Right.
Or you type in a word like really, or you type in the word good.
And the word program will automatically take you to the part in the paper where you
have that.
So I do this whenever I'm editing at the end of my paper because I use a lot of these
unconsciously without realizing it.
So when I'm editing, the first thing I do is control F and I look that up right and I see
if I can find it and then that way I can eliminate them quickly, especially if you folks in
the biz concourse are trying to find those errors quickly and get on with your work
and finish it succinctly, that will be able to help you do that.
All right, so let's go over now.
This is one when we're busy at the desk, which we often are.
I usually go through this one about three or four times a day.
I'm not kidding that in which a lot of people use that which an interchangeably.
Alright, before we get into that, I have a question from Efu.
Do we cover the difference between will and wood we.
I have a short one about could or can may and will.
There's a little difference there.
I don't have one on wilwood per se, but I do have one on the conditional tenses.
So what I'm going to do really quickly, because we're not going to be covering that
today.
I have a conditional tenses workshop in a couple weeks coming up on a Thursday but
I'm going to share the video with you there on conditional tenses, so if you want to
check out the conditional tenses.
That'll show you when you should use wood as a conditional and the other form for
wood would just be past tense.
So something you would do in the past, so that should help out with that.
Now back to that versus which, if they're not the same, then what is the difference?
So we're going to explain these with technical terms.
We're gonna look at some examples after to put some meat under this position.
So which is used to introduce a relative or nonessential clause?
Something that doesn't have to be in the sentence.
You just kind of taking it on to provide extra context.
It will be introduced with a comma.
Right now, that introduces what's called a restrictive or essential element.
It has to be in the sentence.
It's essential to the meaning and it will not have a comma before it, and a lot of
people confuse these relative and restrictive elements.
So let's take a look at an example first of a relative clause.
I just watched La La Land specific name specific film right comma, which stars Emma
Stone.
Now in this context, which stars Emma Stone is related to La La Land the same way a
brother and a sister are related.
So it's a relative clause because they're relatives, right?
But we don't have to have it.
If I pull that out and I simply say I just watched La La land, that sentence still means
that clause still means the same thing.
There's no change in the meaning of that clause, with or without the extra element,
so if we do add the extra element, it's relative nonessential comma, which right now I
have a bad memory.
So let's say I forgot the name of the film, but I still want to communicate that as the
film I saw in this context what we're going to do is add a restrictive element.
I just watched a musical that stars Emma Stone.
Now Emma stones only been in one musical, and that's La La Land.
So now we know which film I'm talking about.
So this part here that stars on the stone restricts which musical I'm talking about, and
in this case, if we pull that out and I simply say I watched the musical, well, now we
have no clue which musical it was.
It could be one of thousands of films, right?
So in that context, we need the restrictive element to clarify which film we're talking
about.

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Jason Horn 27:19

So we use that instead of which so again in your document just hit control F type in
which type in that see where they come up.
Go to those specific instances and say to yourself, hey, if I pull this out, does it
something still work?

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Jason Horn 27:32

And if it does, it should be comma, which if it doesn't, it should be that with order
comma and these same rules apply when we're talking about people, places and
times who, where, when.
If it's relative comma, who comma where comma when restrictive, no comma.
So let's take a quick look at an example here.
I just met Priyanka Chopra.
I've never met Priyanka Chopra just in my dreams, but we'll pretend I did in this
context.
I just met Priyanka Chopra.
Comma who is the star of White Tiger now this piece of information is related to
Priyanka Chopra, right?
The same way a brother and sister are related is relative comma, who if I pull that
element out and I say I met Priyanka Chopra well, this still works right?
The readers are very clear about who I'm talking about.
Specific name.
So it's just relative comma.
Who now?
Let's say I forgot Priyanka Chopra's name, which I of course would never do.
But hypothetically, let's say I forgot I just met the actress.
Who is the star of White Tiger now?
In this context, you will notice that we don't have a comma right.
We've removed that.
Because who is the star of White tiger is restricting which actress we're talking about,
right?
If we remove that and I say I just met the actress, we have no clue which actress we're
talking about.
So it will be who met this star?
Who is the star of white tiger?
Restrictive element, no comma and I don't want to beat a dead horse as the
figurative expression goes.
But the same rule applies for such as an including and.
This is something students get confused.
If it's a relative list comma, such as if it's not, no comma.
Now let's take a look at a quick example of that.
We have this zoo features many aquatic birds comma such as ducks and geese, now
ducks and geese which we can see if we take a walk down by the river.
They're often out there.
They are examples of aquatic birds, the water birds, right.
But if we remove this and we simply say the zoo features many aquatic birds, the zoo
still has aquatic birds, so that checks out.
So it'll be comma such as.
We're just offering relative information now.
Alternately, if I said birds such as chickens and Penguins can't fly, this is different,
right?
This element here is restricting which birds I'm talking about, and again, if we pull
this element out of the sentence and I say birds can't fly, that does not work because
most birds do fly right?
But specifically, birds such as chickens and Penguins can't fly.
So now it's restrictive, no comma, right?
So again, that's the difference between the restrictive and relative elements.
Do we put a comma before?
Who do we put a comma before that or which do we put a comma before such as
and this is the way that you tell you pull out that element if the sentence still means
the same thing, you use the comma.
If that element that you pulled out is central to the meaning now, you don't put a
comma.
It'll be restrictive, right?
So hopefully that makes sense to everybody.
If there's any questions, just drop them in the chat box.
So, so far we've got the run on sentence right?
So we've got the run on sentence which includes, umm the fused sentence and the
comma splice, right?
And we've also covered now the missing commas for the introductory elements.
Introductory elements, right.
And we've covered 2 qualifiers and value judgements.
And now we've also covered the restrictive versus relative.
Elements.
So that's about 1/2 a dozen things so far, so I know for whoever is attending, we
wanna get to everybody, of course.
But for the folks in the biscom course, you have to identify 5, so we've got lots of
tools already to kind of identify those.
Now we're going to hop over to another issue, and that is the Oxford comma.
So if you have a comment for the introductory elements where you say hey, I'm
missing a comma, that's one issue.
But the Oxford comma is a comma as well.
But when you specify the issue, you can kind of you know, hey, I'm also got the
Oxford comma and proper use of the Oxford comma.
So let's take a look at how this Oxford comma works.
So when we, the Oxford comma is in the lists, right?
So if we have a list with just two items, we don't need a comma.
Don't worry about it. Right?
So for example, here we've got Ben and Jerry's right two items in the list, no comma.
So you've got two items.
There's no comma, but if you've got a list with three or more items now, we're going
to put a comma before each new item, and that includes a comma before the
conjunction that introduces the last item.
So you will notice that in newspapers and magazines, they don't always do this and
that's because The Associated Press has a different style guide than a lot of the citing
and referencing guides that we use in academic context.
But when you have APA, MLA, Chicago style courts of law I Tripoli, they all
recommend the use of the Oxford comma.
So we want to understand why we're using the Oxford comma and the short answer
for that is clarity, right and clarity as it relates to distinguishing what we call
compound items and avoiding confusion with what we call coordinate elements,
right.
And we've got our Starbucks queen there.
So we're going to use Starbucks as an example for the compound items.
Now let's say a compound item looks like this.
We have items one comma, 2A and 2B comma and three right.
So when we have these items and we have a comma before the last item, now that
we are knows that 2A2B go together.
But if we remove that now, the reader won't be clear whether or not two and two be
go together.
Or maybe 2 being 3 go together right?
So the meaning becomes unclear and this can change the meaning of the sentence.
So let's say for example I write down my order for Starbucks and I hand it off to a
friend who's going out for a Starbucks run, and I say I want my Chai latte with extra
chi comma, no water, comma.

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Jason Horn 34:03

Ohh and I wanna add some cinnamon and nutmeg right?
So now we have the comma here as clear that cinnamon and nutmeg are being
added.
They're together, right?
But if I forget to put the comma then this is what it might look like.
We have I order my Chai latte with extra Chai, no water and cinnamon and nutmeg
and now.
The reader, the persons not gonna put water or cement in my Chai latte.
And if I got to wait half an hour to get that Starbucks order and they get the wrong
thing, I will be 1 angry cat.
So we gotta make sure we put those Oxford commas in there to make sure that the
reader can distinguish those compound items.
Right now, the other issue as with simple items, right?
And they might sometimes be confused with what we call coordinate elements.
So let's say for instance, I write that my favorite cooks are my parents, comma
Colonel Sanders, comma and Wendy.
So now I got 123 items in my list right?
But if I remove that Oxford comma now, it could be read as the second part could be
read as a coordinate element.
My favorite books are my parents, Colonel Sanders and Wendy, meaning that
Colonel Sanders and Wendy are my parents, which they are not, of course.
So we wanna make sure that we get that clarified to the reader separate those items
so that they know they're separate and that's how they Oxford comma works.
So all right, so we got our Oxford comma.
Now let's hop over to hyphens.
All right, so this is a common one.
This one might be a little harder to find cause you have to figure out like where the
adjectives are.
So what are hyphens?
Obviously, we know what hyphens are.

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Jason Horn 35:51

They're the little dash and we put them in between 2 words that are working
together to describe a noun to show that they're joint, right.
And in that context, they kind of work like the nunchucks, the chain and the
nunchucks.
The two sticks by themselves are two separate tools, but when we put them together
with the chain now they become one tool.
So let's take a look first at an example where we don't need the hyphen.
In this case, I might say that I've got a pair of shiny new nunchucks, right?
So we don't have to have a hyphen here, but the question is how do we know that
we don't need a hyphen?
There is a test that you can do and what you'll do is remove one of the words and
see if the other one does two things.
Does it still work?
And two, does it maintain the same meaning now in this case if I?
Remove shiny and say I've got a pair of new nunchucks.
Well, the nunchucks are still new networks by itself and if I say that I've got a pair of
shiny nunchucks and I've removed new.
Well, there's still shiny, so those two work work irrespective of each other.
I have a new fast car.
It's new.
It's fast, right?
So those two words are separate.
No need to hyphenate them, but when here we need a hyphen.
Bruce Lee was a **** hyphen kicking expert right now.
In this context, we have to have a hyphen, but let's run that test.
If we remove one word and we say Bruce Lee was a kicking expert, does that still
work?
I guess, but does it mean the same thing?
But kicking is, of course, an idiom that means beating people up, right?
So kicking doesn't mean beating people up, so it doesn't mean contain the same
meeting.
If you're unsure, check the other word Bruce Lee was a bug expert.
Well, Bruce Lee was not a proctologist.
He was not Sir mix a lot, so obviously he's not a button expert, so we need to
hyphenate in this context.
Bruce Lee was a **** hyphen kicking expert right now.
There's other instances where we don't use the hyphen, but it might seem like we
need to like proper names or proper nouns.
I watched a Bruce Lee's film.
Now here there's no hyphen, right?
If we remove Bruce and say I watched Alli film, that doesn't work right.
If I say I watched a Bruce film that doesn't work either.
So why are we not hyphenating in this context?
Well, the reason is because we have a proper name, right?
So Bruce Lee is a proper name and that is denoted by the capital letters B and the
capital letters.
IL right?
It's like a Burger King Hamburger Burger King's a proper name.
Name so we know it goes together.
We don't need the hyphen to show that, so Bruce Lee, proper name.
We know it goes together.
We don't need A-IN that context, so if you're using a proper name to describe
something, no need for a hyphen.
Now the other issue is we often see people using adverbs and then hyphenating
them with adjectives, and that's not necessary either.
So let's say, for instance, Bruce Lee has amazingly fast moves, right?
And they are indeed lightning quick as we see here.
So if we remove amazingly and we say that Bruce Lee has fast moves, that's still
checks out, right?
If we remove fast and say that Bruce.
Lee has amazingly moves that doesn't check out.
But why?
Then again, do we not have a hyphen?
Well, in this case here, we won't.
Keep in mind that adverbs.
Like amazingly describe verbs or adjectives and adjectives such as fast describe
nouns O in this context, the word amazingly is describing fast, not moves, and then
fast in turn is describing moves, so we don't have a hyphen because that's simply not
how the word is working in this context.
All right.
So and that's how the hyphen works.
So we got the hyphen sorted out now too.
That might be something.
All right, so let's see.
Will hop over now to through and buy. Now.
This is one that comes up fairly often like that, in which a lot of students will use by
and through interchangeably.
However, like that in which they're not interchangeable, so the question becomes,
how do we tell the difference?
Right.
So let's sort this out now.
Sorry, my animations are a little behind my my voice there.
The first thing you want considers that through is used to describe a movement
through space and time and space and time are always framed as nouns.
Therefore, the word through will always be attached to a noun.
Easy peasy right now.
Inversely, when linking a noun to a verb and the parallel situation we're gonna use by
right?
So if you're attaching a noun to a noun, you use through, you're attaching to a verb
you use buying, right?
So examples, we've got Windsor and Detroit and you might say I got to Detroit blank
the tunnel right now.
In this case, the tunnel is a noun, so if we're going to connect the right there, we
know it's through.
So as I got to Detroit through the tunnel, it's a space or time you're moving through
it right now.
Ultimately, if I say I got to Detroit blank driving there while driving in this case is a
verb, and we know that when we are attaching verbs we use spy.
So it's I got to Detroit by driving there.
Now this seems pretty simple I know, but this is something a lot of folks get
confused when they're writing again.
We'll take a look at another example.
I earned my degree.
Blank hard work, right?
And in this case, hard work is being is a noun, so we use through.
I earned my degree through hard work right now.
Ultimately, if we say I earned my degree by, say, studying well in this case here the
word studying is a verb.
So now I got I earned my degree by studying. Right.
So you want to keep those in mind?
It does get a little tricky cause the word buy can go both ways.
That one?
A little slippery, right?
So if you have, you can attach it with a noun, or you can attach it to a verb.
So we might say something for example like.
Umm, I'm going to contact you by email.
So I got to Detroit by bus.
So you could say by bus, right?
That's a noun to a verb, or here we also have.
I'll contact you by phone.
Right.
People often say that these don't come up in formal academic writing very often,
though, so typically we're not going to use those.
But our I achieve my goals by working hard right?
So it works both ways with the with the buy.
But again, if you're looking for those issues and you're writing, just hit control F type
in through when you get to through, make sure it's attached to a.
Now, if it's not, either swap it out with buy or turn it into a noun right.
And likewise you can type in buy in your control, find look up that word, see if you
can find the issue.
And these are some quick editing tips too.
So like when I'm done my writing, I usually go through these common issues.
I just hit control F look up very look up through look up by and see if I've made any
mistakes relating to those.
Alright, now we're going to hop over to.
Examples.
All right, introducing examples.
This one gets a little tricky. Actually.
You know what?
I know I got some effective writing folks here today too.
So let's hop over to colons and semicolons first.
We'll do the introducing examples after because I know in the effective writing class
you have to incorporate the transition words.
We've covered that a little bit, but you also have to typically include one colon or
semicolon.
So.
People often like that which, through by confused colons and semicolons.
However, the two pieces of punctuation serve very different purposes.
So what is the difference?
We wanna sort that out today, so we're going to start with the colons and the colons
have 4 uses, right?
And we're going to go through them in detail.
They can introduce lists, conclusions, summations or summaries, and what we call an
appositive, which is simply a specification of something, a renaming of something.
So in this context, we want to take a look here an example.
So we've got and an important note here, when you use the colon, it must have an
independent clause before a complete sentence, right?
So the common issue with the colon we're introducing lists is people say, oh, I got a
list.
I'm gonna put a colon in front of it and that's the right path, but there's something
more specific.
So if we say, for instance, that Mario has fought Colon, Donkey Kong, comma,
Bowser, comma, and Wario, this is actually not correct, right?
So the issue here is if we remove everything we put a period after fought, Mario has
fought.
This is not a complete sentence, so we can't use a colon in this context, so we would
have to simply say that Mario has fought Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Wario without
the colon.
Now, that said, if we want to use the colon, we can reframe that first element as a
complete sentence.
So here what we could do instead is hop over and say that Mario has fought several
villains, and if we put a period there that does use, that is a complete sentence.
It's an independent clause, so now we can use the colon if we want, we replace that
period to the colon, and then we list Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Wario.
So now we have the complete sentence.
First, we can use the colon, so whenever you use that colon, the two dots always
make sure you have a complete sentence first.
Now we can also use that for conclusions, right?
So let's take a look at a conclusion.
Now we have here based on the trail of bananas, it was clear who had kidnapped
Princess Peach.
Our complete sentence, colon, Donkey Kong, right.
So we got that colon to introduce the conclusion, we see our evidence and now
we've got our summary or conclusion rather Donkey Kong's our conclusion.
So now we can also use this for summaries we want to summarize what we're saying.
So let's say there was a big party in the Kingdom and afterwards, after Bowser's
party, the house was filled with overturned turtles, mushrooms and fire.
Oh no, that's not good.
So we have a big long sentence here, but we want to summarize it succinctly.
So now that we're done the sentence, we can put a colon and say it was a mess and
that this is a really effective way.
It was a mess at the end of emphasizing to the reader the key point of that long
clause.
So I'm saying this, this, this, this, and this colon.
It was a mess, right?
And that's the key takeaway.
It helps you.
Really, emphatically, drive home that point with a short, terse sentence at the end
that summarizes the main point and emphasizes how you want the reader to
interpret that sentence.
You can invert that too, if you have a long block quote that you're introducing, you
could introduce the key points of that block quote first.
So, so and so outlines the key elements of topic X colon and then as the readers
reading through that, they'll be looking for those key points.
So you can flip that around and that ensures that your audience is reading through
that long passage with the lens that you want them to read, looking for the things
that you want them to look for.
So we've got the lists, the conclusions and the summations, and now we're going to
look at what we call the appositives.
So we can also use the colons for an appositive, which is a specification or renaming
of something.

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Jason Horn 47:37

So what is in a positive?
Well, as we said, an A positive is simply a renaming or rephrasing of a term or name
or specification, right?
So let's say for instance, the mushroom tells us.
Thank you.
Mario, you have saved the mushroom kingdoms. Princess Regent.
Now, Princess Region is a title.
That's whoever is next in line for the throne, but specifically we put a colon and we
specify Princess Peach.
So now we know Princess Peach is the Princess region that in like I say in a business
context, you might say the person most responsible for the companies success was
the CEO Colon, Bill Gates.
And we now we know Bill Gates is the CEO, we have their title, their role and the
name of the person.
The Princess region is Princess Peach specifically so we can use that colon for this as
well.
We see that that specific name is who has that role?
Broadly speaking that we're talking about now, the thing that gets confusing with
colons is should we capitalize after colon?
And the answer here is if there's a proper name or a complete sentence, an
independent clause after the colon, then we capitalized.
That's not the case for semicolons.
The common and the dot, but for colons we capitalize.
There's a complete sentence or a proper name.
Otherwise use lower case.
So here I might say, for instance, after Bowser's party, the mushrooms, the house was
filled with mushrooms, turtles and fire.
Colon.
It was a mess now.
It was a mess.
Is a complete sentence, so we have capitalized here, right?
But if we just have a list of common nouns, let's say bowsers dangerous for three key
reasons colon his fangs, horns, and razor sharp claws.
No, this is his horns, fangs and razor sharp claws.
Not a sentence.
There's no proper names here, so it's all lower case, right?
So again, we capitalize that for the colon.
If there's a proper name or complete sentence, otherwise, we lowercase.
Now for semicolons, it's the opposite.
We are not quite the opposite, but we only capitalize for proper names after a
semicolon, and semicolons have two uses.
The first use is linking independent clauses.
Putting two complete sentences together and that actually creates an alternate form
of the compound sentence, and it's also used to separate complex items in a list.
So let's take a look at linking clauses.
Pacman likes cherries.
That's a complete sentence, Miss.
PAC Man likes apples.
This is also a complete sentence, and because they have a relationship with each
other, we might put them together with the semicolon, right?
So we have again two simple sentences, two independent clauses.
They're equally important and they have a direct relationship with each other.
We wanna make it a compound sentence, but we wanna keep it short.
So we put a semicolon.
Pac-Man. Lights.
Cherries.
Nope.
Miss Pacman likes apples, right?
Easy peasy.
Now you wanna be careful when you can't just Willy nilly put any two sentences
together.
We have to do it when it's appropriate, and there's two instances when it's
appropriate, so take let's take a look at those.
The first instance is when we have parallel sentence structure and the second
instance is.
If you have two short sentences with an obvious relationship, so here parallel
sentence structure, we got short sentences here, but let's imagine they were longer.
We have Pacman, our subject, a noun.
We have Miss Pacman, so we see right away that these are parallel.
We have the word likes and then the word likes, so they're performing the same
action and then after that we see that we have the word cherries, which is a fruit, and
then we have apples, which is also a fruit.
So now we see that those two stories go back there.
Those two are parallel and structure.
Right.
So we see this as a comparison.
The reader understands how to relate the sentences now.
Alternately, we could have an inference that is obvious Miss PAC Man wears heels.
She likes to feel tall.
We all know that high heels make people taller.
She likes to feel tall, so there's an obvious relationship between them.
Totally cool to use a semicolon there.
Now, in this context, a lot of people will use conjunctions with semicolons, and this is
a no no.
So we either use the semicolon or the conjunction, but not both.
Here we have Pacman likes, cherries, semicolon but Miss Pacman likes apples right?
So here we either use the semicolon or the conjunction, not both.
It's like hiring someone to do the same job.
So let's say for example, we go back to our friend Princess Peach.
She's got a new bathroom and she needs somebody to come and lay the pipes in
her bathroom.
So she calls up Mario and say, hey, can you come over to my place and lay the pipes
in my bathroom?
And he says, sure.
But when he gets there, Luigi's already there, and he's like, what's going on?
I thought you you know, so again, we either choose the conjunction or we choose
the semi colon not both.
Right.
Having said that, we can use adverbs.
That's not a problem.
So let's say you you're not sure your reader will be able to notice that it's a contrast
or a conclusion.
Then you can add a adverb to clarify, Pacman likes cherries, semicolon.
However, comma Miss Pacman prefers apples, so now we have that adverb that
shows the transition.
This would count as one of your transition words for effective writing, and one of the
effective ways to start.
Your effective writing papers is with two contrasting positions, right?
So you might say some people believe that teachers should include pop culture in
the classroom semicolon.
However, comma others argue that this is an ineffective approach.
Right.
And now that's your hook.
You got your two contrasting positions.
You create a compound sentence.
You've used a semicolon, and you've used an adverb so that can fulfill actually 4
segment criterias in one sentence.
Right now we also use semicolons to separate what we call complex items, so let's
first make a list of simple items, and we're going to go back to our friend, the colon.
This is not the semicolon here, but colon.
There are 4 ghosts chasing Pacman, Colon, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.
One comma, 2 comma, 3 comma, and four simple items.
But let's say we want to add some information about these items.
So we're going to make them complex.
So we do the sentence again, but now there are four ghost chasing PAC man, com
colon, blinky comma.
Who is red now?
We've talked before, this is a relative element, so we've put comma who now we
have a comma in there.
So if we use a comma to separate items, the reader's gonna get confused, right?
So now we use a semicolon instead Blinky comma who is read semicolon Pinky
comma who is pink semicolon right?
Inky comma, who is cyan semicolon, and finally Clyde comma who is orange.
So in this case here you see we've got the four commas, the three semicolons.
If we use commas throughout, the reader is gonna get quickly confused as to which
commas doing what, right?
So in this case, we're gonna use the commas to introduce the relative elements, but
the semicolons to separate the items, and that is how these semicolons and colons
work.
Now to this end, we now want to also take a look at introducing examples, because
this is something that a lot of people get tripped up with when they were
introducing examples.
There's four ways to introduce these kinds of elements.
We have, first and foremost the, for example and, for instance.
Then we have such as an, including.
We have colons and we have the word like now some people get these mixed up.
Each of them have a different function, so let's go through that for example, and for
instance, they're used to introduce.
Then they're interchange with each other.
They're used to introduce a complete sentence that is an example of the sentence
that precedes it.
So here we've got.
Let's see what we got here.

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Jason Horn 55:49

We've got.
Ohh, I enjoy all kinds of sports.
Period.
Full stop.
End of sentence, for example comma.
I love to play soccer now.
I love to play.
Soccer is a complete sentence, and it is an example of the sentence that comes
before.
This is one of our transition elements, and now that readers.
Sees that, right?
So for example, for instance, complete sentence now such as an including are
interchangeable with each other.
However, they are not interchangeable with, for example and.
For instance, a lot of people do use them interchangeably, but they're not.
So what they're used is to introduce a list of examples.
So here instead of I enjoy all kinds of sports, you might say I enjoy all kinds of
desserts, comma, such as baklava cure and red bean pancakes.
Now such as is introducing our list of food items here.
But if we just set bottlerock here in Ruby and pancakes, that's not a complete
sentence, right?
So we don't use for example or.
For instance, we use such Azure including.
Now the question here is do we need to put a cetera at the end of a list when we
introduced it with such as or including?
The short answer is no, we don't need to do that.
The issue here is the words such as an including just means examples.
It doesn't mean it's comprehensive, so we don't need to put etcetera at the end.
Now the question after that is what if it is a complete list?
Well, if it is a complete list, that's a good time to use the colon.
Right now, the first rule of Colon Club, as we have already discussed, is that you must
have an independent clause to complete sentence before the colon.
And as we've already discussed, it introduces the lists, conclusions, summations and a
positives.
But we're just going to focus on lists in this context, so here we have the study.
Examined 3 social markers.
That's a complete sentence.
So we can introduce now the markers with a colon and we got gender, age and
ability 123.
Those are the three social markers that complete list and we can use the colon right
now.
Here's where we get the real confusion is like a lot of people will use, like,
interchangeably with, such as including.
It's not.
It doesn't.
It introduces a similarity, not an example, right?

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Jason Horn 58:02

So here we might say Canada is adopting green energy solutions comma like
Germany and China or Germany, China and India.
Now, in this context, when we say like that means that Canada is doing something
similar to what these countries are doing.
These are not examples of the green energy solutions.
We're saying that Canada is similar to that, right.
If we wanted examples then we would say Canada is adopting green energy
solutions such as solar power and windmills, right?
So in that context, we see there's a difference.
So when you're introducing examples, don't say like you such as or including, right?
It's like if I, let's say, somebody's from LaSalle and I say ohh, I have visited towns like
LaSalle.
Well, that means I've visited town similar to it, not the cell exactly.
But if I say, oh, I've visited many towns in southwestern Ontario, comma, such as
LaSalle, Tilbury and Tillsonburg right now, those are lists of ones I've actually been to.
All right.
So umm, that's all.
We got today.
It's 1101 now.
I wanna get you folks home and or wherever you're going on for the rest of your day
again really quick.
If you joined late and you haven't done so already, let me know if you're here for a
bonus.
If you're here for effective writing, just drop that in the chat box.
If you've already done that, don't worry.
Not a big deal, and if you are here for the Biscom 2 course either Anne Mullen or
Shelley Ann Johns put their name in the chat box.
You can put Shelley Ann Johns or SAJ, or AM or in Mullen for Anne Mullen.
I'll make sure you get credit if you happen to be here for another course.
Let us know in the chat box the name of the course and the name of the instructor,
and we'll make sure that you get the appropriate credit.
All right, so I'm going to turn over to you folks now.
I'm gonna turn the camera, or rather, turn the recording off.

Jason Horn stopped transcription